Saturday, September 12, 2020

A Minor Update

DATAFORTRESS 2020 HAS BEEN UPDATED

 Hey all, it's been a while since I dropped an update, this is a small one, mostly just cleaning up the Hyperlinks page.  Sadly, we have lost a great many more, including the great Chris Conkles Cyberpunk 2k2, one of the original megasites, and a source of personal inspiration.  But, with the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 video game, and the hype around Cyberpunk Red, the digital highways are once again spawning new sites, most take the form of blogs and video reviews, like the fantastic video blog hub of Cyberpunk Uncensored, giving voice to the excitement surrounding all things cyberpunk these days, or wiki type pages like the massive Cyberpunk Wiki, detailing every edition and version of the game we love, from Cyberpunk 2013 to Red, and even the video game.  I have also included the relevant Reddit and Facebook groups.

 Some more traditional sites have appeared as well, a welcome site to my eyes.  The best news is that Cybersmily's Datafort, once lost, is back and better than ever, with tons of new content and regular updates.  Cybersmily is an old friend and collaborator, and his site is fantastic.

 If you know of a site that I missed, please drop me a link and I will try and get it added.

 The only new material I have added this update is something that has been sorely needed, an editable Interlock Unlimited character sheet in excel format.  Playing online just got much easier, as this is a full editable version of my IU character sheets, with all the relevant information, including the Combat Page, complete with Combat Actions so you can make the most of your IU games.  

I have found that distributing the character sheets to your players, then having each of them individually share them back to you via Google Sheets, is the best way for a GM and player to share a sheet, allowing for instant editing and auditing by both parties.  

 With the excitement around 2077 and Red, lots of you are creating new material, if you would like your material to be hosted on Datafortress 2020, by all means, please get in touch with me.

The campaign I am currently running is based on the Glass Road sourcebook I have had on the back burner for years.  Running a game in that setting will hopefully allow me to further flesh out the ideas and finally get the sourcebook written.

I am also still working on the Night City District guide, though that is going much more slowly and painfully than I hoped.  Sadly, with my back pain and other health problems, sitting in front of the computer and typing, is something of an agonizing ordeal.  But I am not giving up.

Also on a low simmer, is an idea for an espionage based sourcebook, for running high level globe spanning games.  I don't know if it will spawn a Conflict Eastern Europe sourcebook separately, or if my ideas for that will just get folded into the espionage idea, but that material is swimming insidiously around in my head as well.

 It seems like Cyberpunk Red is being pushed back a little again, a recent announcement by R. Talsorian states that with the pandemic, they will be unable to make the end of summer release they were hoping for.  That's fine, I would rather get the product as polished as possible.  Jay Gray has been doing a bang up job as R.Tal's ambassador, so if you see him, give him his props.  I have the kickstarter, and I can say this, the art is fantastic, it is simply beautiful.   The rules are a mix of Interlock and Fuzion, and I am waiting till the full version is in my hand before passing any judgement.  If you want a glimpse of what the full rules have to offer, my friend Rob Mulligan at Cyberpunk Uncensored,  has been given a playtest advanced copy, and is live streaming his games.  I'm pretty jealous, would love to get my hands on that.

Lastly, there is just a ton of swag and promo material being released for 2077.  Clothing, comics, art books, guides, action figures, statues, keychains, posters, puzzles, and on and on.... the problem is, so much of it is so ridiculously expensive, that I will never be able to get my hands on it... like that statue from E3, or really any of the official product from CDPR, and those high end action figures with the motorcycle are so incredibly cool... oh well, hopefully I can keep up with the Red merchandise and promo material...

I hope you are all staying safe in this time of pandemic and civil unrest.  And in case you doubt where I stand, wear a mask, fight fascism, and Black Lives Matter.

Love and Bullets,

Wisdom000